[Holbrook]

When you are writing, do you listen to music ? Have you found that a certain type/song fits the piece or the character you are writing about?

I have one character that fits a song. Or rather it is the sort of song the the character would sing off key to annoy the hell out of his fellow characters.

The song is "Where ever when ever" by Shakira.

In fact it has gotten so bad, that at the moment, as I am doing some re-writing on the orders of my friend/editor/demon from hell. I am having to play the whole of Shakira's album to get a handle on the character's antics *sigh*

[manticore]

hasnt happened to me yet....but i bet Robert Jordan listens to Britney Spears while writing all his female characters....:D

[choppy]

I almost always listen to music while I'm writing - usually the radio. I have the Braveheart soundtrack on CD and it's one of my favorites to write to.

One of the problems though, is that songs only last for a few minutes - about long enough for me to write a paragraph or two. Then the next song comes on and the atmosphere changes. I suppose I could program the CD player to repeat particular songs, but that just seems to get repetative.

Cheers:cool:

[Shef]

I nearly never listen to music while writing. If I ever need to block out other noises around the house I'll listen to a local Red Sox game or my Creed CDs though. :p

[Nimea]

Like while reading I try to listen to music while writing as well.
I prefer movie scores, than. Only occasionally I listen to other music if it fits the mood.

I also often quote from songs at the beginnig of my novels. It really happens a lot that I stumble upon some lines in some (metal :p) songs that perfectly fit the theme of the story.

[Sonja Ravenscroft]

Re Shaikira....


YOU TOO??! That's another one of the songs that a certain character I have keeps wanting to be written...

You think there's some subliminal stuff going on?:p

I think maybe we should get in touch with Shaikira....maybe she's onto something:D

[Pirate Jenn]

I need music to drown out other sounds. I have a problem when the music jolts around too much as well. Usually, I'll put in a cycle of Enya CDs--they're pretty even-keeled. I have a whole fleet of Segovia Classical Spanish guitar music that's pretty nifty. And the Gypsy Kings. And Handel. And Holst's THe Planets...anything so long as I can't understand/sing along with the words.

My theme music, though--the tunes that always crop up--belong to the Sea Shanty tradition. My dad listened to reels of the stuff when I was a kid, dreaming into notebooks. "Blow Ye Winds," belongs to a character and "The Grey Funnel Line" weaves through one of my books: the sea, the fog, the realm between despair and hope. The songs are so simple and profound. ::happy sigh::

[Alucard]

I'm almost always listening to music when I'm writing. For the most part I listen to classical, but I can write to just about anything (and sometimes do). Current writing companions, Chopin, Liszt and Nobuo Uematsu's piano pieces.

[Talaith]

When I was writing my most recent story (The Last Day of the War, coming soon to an SFF World near you...hopefully...assuming it wasn't rife with errors my meager proofreading skills did not catch)...anyway, when I wrote that story Country music seemed to making the writing really flow. It was kind of funny because I didn't really listen to country music until I started writing Last Day. One day as I was writing it (and having a bit of trouble) I suddenly got a country music craving...

[Sonja Ravenscroft]

I've had similar experiences....I think it's your mind wanting to set up the tone for your story...I was never into Dance music until my character starting popping up in a short story I wrote(funny how characters that start as secondary characters tend to take a life of their own:)) I guess she's really into Dance music...